Vehicular multi-camera vision system

ABSTRACT

A vision system for a vehicle includes a plurality of cameras with one camera functioning as a master camera and other cameras functioning as slave cameras. During a forward driving maneuver of the vehicle, a forward viewing camera functions as the master camera and at least a driver-side sideward viewing camera and a passenger-side sideward viewing camera function as slave cameras. During a reversing maneuver of the vehicle, a rearward viewing camera functions as the master camera and at least the driver-side sideward viewing camera and the passenger-side sideward viewing camera function as slave cameras. The vision system is operable to synthesize a composite image derived from image data captured by at least the master camera and the driver-side sideward viewing camera and the passenger-side sideward viewing camera. Operating parameters of the master camera are used at least by the driver-side sideward viewing camera and the passenger-side sideward viewing camera.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/361,749, filed Nov. 28, 2016, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,769,381, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/269,788, filed May 5, 2014, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,508,014, which claims the filing benefits of U.S. provisional application Ser. No. 61/819,835, filed May 6, 2013, which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to a vehicle vision system for a vehicle and, more particularly, to a vehicle vision system that utilizes one or more cameras at a vehicle.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Use of imaging sensors in vehicle imaging systems is common and known. Examples of such known systems are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,949,331; 5,670,935 and/or 5,550,677, which are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a vision system or imaging system for a vehicle that utilizes a plurality of cameras (preferably one or more CMOS cameras) to capture image data representative of images exterior of the vehicle, and provides a multi-camera vision system image balancing technique that is easier to implement and cost-effective and provides improved image balancing performance.

The vision system or imaging system of the present invention utilizes multiple cameras to capture image data representative of images exterior of the vehicle, and provides the communication/data signals, including camera data or captured image data, that may be displayed at a display screen that is viewable by the driver of the vehicle, such as when the driver is parking the vehicle and/or backing up the vehicle, and that may be processed and, responsive to such image processing, the system may detect an object at or near the vehicle and in the path of travel of the vehicle, such as when the vehicle is backing up. The vision system may be operable to display a surround view or bird's eye view of the environment at or around or at least partially surrounding the subject or equipped vehicle, and the displayed image may include a displayed image representation of the subject vehicle.

The present invention provides a vision system that selects a camera of the plurality of cameras to be a master camera, whereby the operating parameters determined by or suitable for the images or image data captured by the selected master camera are applied to or used by the other cameras or applied to the image data captured by the other cameras of the plurality of cameras. By using one camera's operating parameters for all of the cameras, image balancing at the junctions of the merged or stitched images of the surround view displayed image are enhanced. The present invention provides such enhancement while reducing overall costs of the system, because no control unit image signal processing (ISP) control algorithms are needed, thus avoiding ISP development cost and royalty cost.

These and other objects, advantages, purposes and features of the present invention will become apparent upon review of the following specification in conjunction with the drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a vehicle with a vision system that incorporates cameras in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a bird's eye view image showing good and bad image balance at the border areas;

FIG. 3 is a schematic of a vision system, with the ISP algorithms running in ECU and controlling all cameras through network link;

FIG. 4 is a schematic of a vision system with a master camera, with the other cameras in the system being slave cameras, with one part of the ECU acting as a network gateway or controller;

FIG. 5 is a schematic of a vision system with one master camera, with the other cameras in the system being slave cameras, and with a separate network controller outside of the ECU acting as a network gateway or controller, wherein the separated network controller can be a part of a different vehicle ECU that already exists; and

FIG. 6 is a schematic of a vision system with one master camera, with the other cameras in the system being slave cameras, and with the master camera acting as a network gateway or controller.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

A vehicle vision system and/or driver assist system and/or object detection system and/or alert system operates to capture images exterior of the vehicle and may process the captured image data to display images and to detect objects at or near the vehicle and in the predicted path of the vehicle, such as to assist a driver of the vehicle in maneuvering the vehicle in a rearward direction. The vision system includes an image processor or image processing system that is operable to receive image data from one or more cameras and provide an output to a display device for displaying images representative of the captured image data. Optionally, the vision system may provide a top down or bird's eye or surround view display and may provide a displayed image that is representative of the subject vehicle, and optionally with the displayed image being customized to at least partially correspond to the actual subject vehicle.

Referring now to the drawings and the illustrative embodiments depicted therein, a vehicle 10 includes an imaging system or vision system 12 that includes at least one exterior facing imaging sensor or camera, such as a rearward facing imaging sensor or camera 14 a (and the system may optionally include multiple exterior facing imaging sensors or cameras, such as a forwardly facing camera 14 b at the front (or at the windshield) of the vehicle, and a sidewardly/rearwardly facing camera 14 c, 14 d at respective sides of the vehicle, such as at or in respective exterior rearview mirror assemblies at the sides of the vehicle), which captures images exterior of the vehicle, with the camera having a lens for focusing images at or onto an imaging array or imaging plane or imager of the camera (FIG. 1). The vision system 12 includes a control or electronic control unit (ECU) or processor 18 that is operable to process image data captured by the cameras and may provide displayed images at a display device 16 for viewing by the driver of the vehicle (although shown in FIG. 1 as being part of or incorporated in or at an interior rearview mirror assembly 20 of the vehicle, the control and/or the display device may be disposed elsewhere at or in the vehicle). The data transfer or signal communication from the camera to the ECU may comprise any suitable data or communication link, such as a vehicle network bus or the like of the equipped vehicle.

In a multi-camera surround view system, the sections of a bird's-eye-view (BEV) image derived from image data captured by multiple cameras may appear to have different brightness and color (such as described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 7,714,887, which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety). The current technique to balancing the BEV image to deliver generally uniform brightness and color at the section border areas involves the surround view control unit (such as an electronic control unit or ECU) controlling camera exposure and color parameters of all cameras through the network connections to the cameras. This technique requires image signal processing (ISP) algorithms running in the ECU (see, for example, FIG. 3). Normally, ISP algorithms are tied tightly with the imager sensor and run on a processor in the same silicon die of the imager, or in a companion chip placed next to the image sensor inside the camera. In the ECU, the ISP algorithms may run on a different type of processor (such as, for example, a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or an ARM core or any other suitable type of microprocessor). It takes extra software development effort to port the imager ISP algorithms from the imager ISP processor to the ECU processor, and involves paying royalty of ISP to the imager ISP provider. For the ECU supplier, development of a home-grown ISP core in the ECU processor, without the detailed knowledge of the image sensor and ISP algorithms, the performance of the ISP may not be as good as the imager ISP. A reason for this is that the imager ISP involves with complex control mechanisms, and the access of intimate knowledge of imager registers and performance tuning skills.

The present invention involves using existing ISP of one of the cameras to control the rest of the cameras of the vision system. One of the cameras is configured as the “master” camera, and the rest of the cameras are configured as “slave” cameras. The master camera's ISP imager control commands are sent or communicated over network links to all the slave cameras for slave ISP controls. As a result, all of the cameras will have a balanced BEV image. With this technique, no ECU ISP control algorithms are needed, thus avoiding ISP development cost and royalty cost, while enhancing or optimizing the ISP performance and BEV image balancing performance.

The goal of BEV image balancing is to make the image sections from different cameras appear uniform in brightness and color at the borders of the sections. FIG. 2 shows an example of a BEV image that has good image balance (such as at the rear right corner of the vehicle) and bad image balance (such as at the left front corner of the vehicle) at the border areas.

In accordance with the present invention, an alternative technique is proposed and implemented, which involves a master-slave camera configuration. An ISP is running in the master camera which determines proper parameters that control camera performances, such as, for example, brightness, color, dynamic range, and/or the like. All of the slave cameras are controlled by the ISP algorithms of the master camera. By being controlled with a single ISP, all of the cameras have the same image performances, which include brightness, color, dynamic range, and/or the like, if they are facing the same scene. At the BEV camera divider border areas, the image brightness and color uniformity are substantially or generally maintained.

This technique can be applied to two or more cameras that are used in a multi-camera surround view system or similar systems. The multi-camera system may be in a vehicle to assist driver parking or to provide a security monitoring system that involves multiple cameras installed at multiple angles and locations, and that may provide composite image (comprising portions of images captured by multiple cameras), such as a continuous/seamless and stitched view image having images captured by the multiple cameras stitched together in a generally or substantially seamless manner (such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,859,565, which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety). With such a vision system, all of the vehicle cameras are connected or linked through a network connection. The network connection may comprise a vehicle CAN bus, LIN bus, Ethernet bus, wireless networks, UART connection or other types of suitable network links. The topologies of the network connection may comprise star, daisy chain, or other suitable topologies. For the network connection between the cameras, there is a network hub or switch or gateway that routes the camera ISP control commands from the master camera to the slave cameras. With the daisy chain topology, there are distributed network gateways at each camera node. The hub/switch/gateway may be a part of the multi-camera ECU, a part of a separate and existing ECU in vehicle, a separate network controller, or inside the master camera, or other means. These configurations are depicted in FIGS. 4-6.

The camera ISP control may be in the form of writing registers to the imager/camera (such as a CMOS photosensor array of photosensing elements or pixels), sending commands to the imager, or other suitable means. As an example of master-slave control technique, the master is running in its normal mode (in other words, with automatic exposure control, gain control and white balance/color control modes), while the slave cameras are running with all above mentioned auto controls turned off. The microprocessor inside the hub/switch/gateway reads all relevant control registers from the master camera and sends them over network connection and writes these registers to the imagers or circuitry inside the slave cameras with fast enough speed. The master camera controls the slave cameras in real time with the same set of imager control parameters, and thus all of the cameras produce the same image performances in terms of exposure/gain, color, dynamic range, and/or the like. For a multi-camera system that employs these cameras, a uniformly bordered or continuous brightness and color BEV image can be reached.

The master camera may be any one of the multiple cameras of the vision system, and the system or user may select which camera acts as the master camera for a given application. Depending on the viewing mode of the multi-camera system, the network controller can assign any one of the cameras as the master and the rest of cameras as slaves. For example, with a viewing mode that includes a BEV image and an image captured by the rear view camera, the rear view camera may be selected as the master camera. In another example, with a viewing mode that includes a BEV image and an image captured by a front view camera, the front view camera may be selected as the master camera. When the ECU makes a viewing mode change, selection of master and slave decision may be made by the ECU and the configuration commands may be sent to all of the cameras to re-configure them to suitable master and slave modes.

The multi-camera vision system includes two or more cameras, such as a rearward viewing camera and a driver side sideward viewing camera and a passenger side sideward viewing camera, whereby the system may synthesize a composite image derived from image data captured by at least two of the cameras. Optionally, the vision system may utilize a forward viewing camera and the rearward viewing camera and the sideward viewing cameras disposed at the vehicle with exterior fields of view, and may be part of or may provide a display of a top-down view or bird's eye view system of the vehicle or a surround view at the vehicle, such as by utilizing aspects of the vision systems described in International Publication Nos. WO 2010/099416; WO 2011/028686; WO 2012/075250; WO 2013/019795; WO 2012/075250; WO 2012/145822; WO 2013/081985; WO 2013/086249 and/or WO 2013/109869, and/or U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/333,337, filed Dec. 21, 2011, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,264,672, which are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.

The camera or sensor may comprise any suitable camera or sensor. Optionally, the camera may comprise a “smart camera” that includes the imaging sensor array and associated circuitry and image processing circuitry and electrical connectors and the like as part of a camera module, such as by utilizing aspects of the vision systems described in International Publication Nos. WO 2013/081984 and/or WO 2013/081985, which are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.

The system includes an image processor operable to process image data captured by the camera or cameras, such as for detecting objects or other vehicles or pedestrians or the like in the field of view of one or more of the cameras. For example, the image processor may comprise an EyeQ2 or EyeQ3 image processing chip available from Mobileye Vision Technologies Ltd. of Jerusalem, Israel, and may include object detection software (such as the types described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,855,755; 7,720,580 and/or 7,038,577, which are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties), and may analyze image data to detect vehicles and/or other objects. Responsive to such image processing, and when an object or other vehicle is detected, the system may generate an alert to the driver of the vehicle and/or may generate an overlay at the displayed image to highlight or enhance display of the detected object or vehicle, in order to enhance the driver's awareness of the detected object or vehicle or hazardous condition during a driving maneuver of the equipped vehicle.

The vehicle may include any type of sensor or sensors, such as imaging sensors or radar sensors or lidar sensors or ladar sensors or ultrasonic sensors or the like. The imaging sensor or camera may capture image data for image processing and may comprise any suitable camera or sensing device, such as, for example, a two dimensional array of a plurality of photosensor elements arranged in at least 640 columns and 480 rows (at least a 640×480 imaging array, such as a megapixel imaging array or the like), with a respective lens focusing images onto respective portions of the array. The photosensor array may comprise a plurality of photosensor elements arranged in a photosensor array having rows and columns. Preferably, the imaging array has at least 300,000 photosensor elements or pixels, more preferably at least 500,000 photosensor elements or pixels and more preferably at least 1 million photosensor elements or pixels. The imaging array may capture color image data, such as via spectral filtering at the array, such as via an RGB (red, green and blue) filter or via a red/red complement filter or such as via an RCC (red, clear, clear) filter or the like. The logic and control circuit of the imaging sensor may function in any known manner, and the image processing and algorithmic processing may comprise any suitable means for processing the images and/or image data.

For example, the vision system and/or processing and/or camera and/or circuitry may utilize aspects described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,005,974; 5,760,962; 5,877,897; 5,796,094; 5,949,331; 6,222,447; 6,302,545; 6,396,397; 6,498,620; 6,523,964; 6,611,202; 6,201,642; 6,690,268; 6,717,610; 6,757,109; 6,802,617; 6,806,452; 6,822,563; 6,891,563; 6,946,978; 7,859,565; 5,550,677; 5,670,935; 6,636,258; 7,145,519; 7,161,616; 7,230,640; 7,248,283; 7,295,229; 7,301,466; 7,592,928; 7,881,496; 7,720,580; 7,038,577; 6,882,287; 5,929,786 and/or 5,786,772, and/or International Publication Nos. 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No. 61/955,831, filed Mar. 20, 2014; Ser. No. 61/952,335, filed Mar. 13, 2014; Ser. No. 61/952,334, filed Mar. 13, 2014; Ser. No. 61/950,261, filed Mar. 10, 2014; Ser. No. 61/950,261, filed Mar. 10, 2014; Ser. No. 61/947,638, filed Mar. 4, 2014; Ser. No. 61/947,053, filed Mar. 3, 2014; Ser. No. 61/942,568, filed Feb. 19, 2014; Ser. No. 61/935,485, filed Feb. 4, 2014; Ser. No. 61/935,057, filed Feb. 3, 2014; Ser. No. 61/935,056, filed Feb. 3, 2014; Ser. No. 61/935,055, filed Feb. 3, 2014; Ser. 61/931,811, filed Jan. 27, 2014; Ser. No. 61/919,129, filed Dec. 20, 2013; Ser. No. 61/919,130, filed Dec. 20, 2013; Ser. No. 61/919,131, filed Dec. 20, 2013; Ser. No. 61/919,147, filed Dec. 20, 2013; Ser. No. 61/919,138, filed Dec. 20, 2013, Ser. No. 61/919,133, filed Dec. 20, 2013; Ser. No. 61/918,290, filed Dec. 19, 2013; Ser. No. 61/915,218, filed Dec. 12, 2013; Ser. No. 61/912,146, filed Dec. 5, 2013; Ser. No. 61/911,666, filed Dec. 4, 2013; Ser. No. 61/911,665, filed Dec. 4, 2013; Ser. 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No. 61/837,955, filed Jun. 21, 2013; Ser. No. 61/836,900, filed Jun. 19, 2013; Ser. No. 61/836,380, filed Jun. 18, 2013; Ser. No. 61/833,080, filed Jun. 10, 2013; Ser. No. 61/830,375, filed Jun. 3, 2013; Ser. No. 61/830,377, filed Jun. 3, 2013; Ser. No. 61/825,752, filed May 21, 2013; Ser. No. 61/825,753, filed May 21, 2013; Ser. No. 61/823,648, filed May 15, 2013; Ser. No. 61/823,644, filed May 15, 2013; Ser. No. 61/821,922, filed May 10, 2013; Ser. No. 61/819,033, filed May 3, 2013; Ser. No. 61/816,956, filed Apr. 29, 2013; Ser. No. 61/815,044, filed Apr. 23, 2013; Ser. No. 61/814,533, filed Apr. 22, 2013; Ser. No. 61/813,361, filed Apr. 18, 2013; and/or Ser. No. 61/810,407, filed Apr. 10, 2013, which are all hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties. The system may communicate with other communication systems via any suitable means, such as by utilizing aspects of the systems described in International Publication Nos. WO/2010/144900; WO 2013/043661 and/or WO 2013/081985, and/or U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/202,005, filed Aug. 17, 2011, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,126,525, which are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.

The imaging device and control and image processor and any associated illumination source, if applicable, may comprise any suitable components, and may utilize aspects of the cameras and vision systems described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,550,677; 5,877,897; 6,498,620; 5,670,935; 5,796,094; 6,396,397; 6,806,452; 6,690,268; 7,005,974; 7,937,667; 7,123,168; 7,004,606; 6,946,978; 7,038,577; 6,353,392; 6,320,176; 6,313,454 and/or 6,824,281, and/or International Publication Nos. WO 2010/099416; WO 2011/028686 and/or WO 2013/016409, and/or U.S. Pat. Publication No. US 2010-0020170, and/or U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/534,657, filed Jun. 27, 2012 and published Jan. 3, 2013 as U.S. Publication No. US-2013-0002873, which are all hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties. The camera or cameras may comprise any suitable cameras or imaging sensors or camera modules, and may utilize aspects of the cameras or sensors described in U.S. Publication No. US-2009-0244361 and/or U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/260,400, filed Sep. 26, 2011, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,542,451, and/or U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,965,336 and/or 7,480,149, which are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties. The imaging array sensor may comprise any suitable sensor, and may utilize various imaging sensors or imaging array sensors or cameras or the like, such as a CMOS imaging array sensor, a CCD sensor or other sensors or the like, such as the types described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,550,677; 5,670,935; 5,760,962; 5,715,093; 5,877,897; 6,922,292; 6,757,109; 6,717,610; 6,590,719; 6,201,642; 6,498,620; 5,796,094; 6,097,023; 6,320,176; 6,559,435; 6,831,261; 6,806,452; 6,396,397; 6,822,563; 6,946,978; 7,339,149; 7,038,577; 7,004,606; 7,720,580 and/or 7,965,336, and/or International Publication Nos. WO/2009/036176 and/or WO/2009/046268, which are all hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.

The camera module and circuit chip or board and imaging sensor may be implemented and operated in connection with various vehicular vision-based systems, and/or may be operable utilizing the principles of such other vehicular systems, such as a vehicle headlamp control system, such as the type disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,796,094; 6,097,023; 6,320,176; 6,559,435; 6,831,261; 7,004,606; 7,339,149 and/or 7,526,103, which are all hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties, a rain sensor, such as the types disclosed in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,353,392; 6,313,454; 6,320,176 and/or 7,480,149, which are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties, a vehicle vision system, such as a forwardly, sidewardly or rearwardly directed vehicle vision system utilizing principles disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,550,677; 5,670,935; 5,760,962; 5,877,897; 5,949,331; 6,222,447; 6,302,545; 6,396,397; 6,498,620; 6,523,964; 6,611,202; 6,201,642; 6,690,268; 6,717,610; 6,757,109; 6,802,617; 6,806,452; 6,822,563; 6,891,563; 6,946,978 and/or 7,859,565, which are all hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties, a trailer hitching aid or tow check system, such as the type disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,005,974, which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, a reverse or sideward imaging system, such as for a lane change assistance system or lane departure warning system or for a blind spot or object detection system, such as imaging or detection systems of the types disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,881,496; 7,720,580; 7,038,577; 5,929,786 and/or 5,786,772, and/or U.S. provisional applications, Ser. No. 60/628,709, filed Nov. 17, 2004; Ser. No. 60/614,644, filed Sep. 30, 2004; Ser. No. 60/618,686, filed Oct. 14, 2004; Ser. No. 60/638,687, filed Dec. 23, 2004, which are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties, a video device for internal cabin surveillance and/or video telephone function, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,760,962; 5,877,897; 6,690,268 and/or 7,370,983, and/or U.S. Publication No. US-2006-0050018, which are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties, a traffic sign recognition system, a system for determining a distance to a leading or trailing vehicle or object, such as a system utilizing the principles disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,396,397 and/or 7,123,168, which are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties, and/or the like.

Optionally, the circuit board or chip may include circuitry for the imaging array sensor and or other electronic accessories or features, such as by utilizing compass-on-a-chip or EC driver-on-a-chip technology and aspects such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,255,451 and/or U.S. Pat. No. 7,480,149; and/or U.S. Publication No. US-2006-0061008 and/or U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/578,732, filed Oct. 14, 2009, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,487,144, which are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.

Optionally, the vision system may include a display for displaying images captured by one or more of the imaging sensors for viewing by the driver of the vehicle while the driver is normally operating the vehicle. Optionally, for example, the vision system may include a video display device disposed at or in the interior rearview mirror assembly of the vehicle, such as by utilizing aspects of the video mirror display systems described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,690,268 and/or U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/333,337, filed Dec. 21, 2011, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,264,672, which are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties. The video mirror display may comprise any suitable devices and systems and optionally may utilize aspects of the compass display systems described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,370,983; 7,329,013; 7,308,341; 7,289,037; 7,249,860; 7,004,593; 4,546,551; 5,699,044; 4,953,305; 5,576,687; 5,632,092; 5,677,851; 5,708,410; 5,737,226; 5,802,727; 5,878,370; 6,087,953; 6,173,508; 6,222,460; 6,513,252 and/or 6,642,851, and/or European patent application, published Oct. 11, 2000 under Publication No. EP 0 1043566, and/or U.S. Publication No. US-2006-0061008, which are all hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties. Optionally, the video mirror display screen or device may be operable to display images captured by a rearward viewing camera of the vehicle during a reversing maneuver of the vehicle (such as responsive to the vehicle gear actuator being placed in a reverse gear position or the like) to assist the driver in backing up the vehicle, and optionally may be operable to display the compass heading or directional heading character or icon when the vehicle is not undertaking a reversing maneuver, such as when the vehicle is being driven in a forward direction along a road (such as by utilizing aspects of the display system described in International Publication No. WO 2012/051500, which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety).

Optionally, a video mirror display may be disposed rearward of and behind the reflective element assembly and may comprise a display such as the types disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,530,240; 6,329,925; 7,855,755; 7,626,749; 7,581,859; 7,446,650; 7,370,983; 7,338,177; 7,274,501; 7,255,451; 7,195,381; 7,184,190; 5,668,663; 5,724,187 and/or 6,690,268, and/or in U.S. Publication Nos. US-2006-0061008 and/or US-2006-0050018, which are all hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties. The display is viewable through the reflective element when the display is activated to display information. The display element may be any type of display element, such as a vacuum fluorescent (VF) display element, a light emitting diode (LED) display element, such as an organic light emitting diode (OLED) or an inorganic light emitting diode, an electroluminescent (EL) display element, a liquid crystal display (LCD) element, a video screen display element or backlit thin film transistor (TFT) display element or the like, and may be operable to display various information (as discrete characters, icons or the like, or in a multi-pixel manner) to the driver of the vehicle, such as passenger side inflatable restraint (PSIR) information, tire pressure status, and/or the like. The mirror assembly and/or display may utilize aspects described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,184,190; 7,255,451; 7,446,924 and/or 7,338,177, which are all hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties. The thicknesses and materials of the coatings on the substrates of the reflective element may be selected to provide a desired color or tint to the mirror reflective element, such as a blue colored reflector, such as is known in the art and such as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,910,854; 6,420,036 and/or 7,274,501, which are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.

Optionally, the display or displays and any associated user inputs may be associated with various accessories or systems, such as, for example, a tire pressure monitoring system or a passenger air bag status or a garage door opening system or a telematics system or any other accessory or system of the mirror assembly or of the vehicle or of an accessory module or console of the vehicle, such as an accessory module or console of the types described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,289,037; 6,877,888; 6,824,281; 6,690,268; 6,672,744; 6,386,742 and 6,124,886, and/or U.S. Publication No. US-2006-0050018, which are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.

Changes and modifications in the specifically described embodiments can be carried out without departing from the principles of the invention, which is intended to be limited only by the scope of the appended claims, as interpreted according to the principles of patent law including the doctrine of equivalents. 

The invention claimed is:
 1. A vision system for a vehicle, said vision system comprising: a plurality of cameras disposed at a vehicle and having respective fields of view exterior of the vehicle; wherein said plurality of cameras comprises a forward viewing camera having at least a forward field of view forward of the vehicle, a rearward viewing camera having at least a rearward field of view rearward of the vehicle, a driver-side sideward viewing camera having at least a sideward field of view at a driver side of the vehicle and a passenger-side sideward viewing camera having at least a sideward field of view at a passenger side of the vehicle; an electronic control unit; wherein each of said cameras is operable to automatically control its exposure, gain and white balance responsive to a first control signal received from said electronic control unit and is operable to disable automatic control of its exposure, gain and white balance responsive to a second control signal received from said electronic control unit; wherein one of said plurality of cameras functions as a master camera and other cameras of said plurality of cameras function as slave cameras; wherein, during a forward driving maneuver of the vehicle, said forward viewing camera functions as the master camera and at least said driver-side sideward viewing camera and said passenger-side sideward viewing camera function as slave cameras, and wherein, during the forward driving maneuver of the vehicle, (i) said forward viewing camera receives the first signal from said electronic control unit to enable the automatic control of exposure, gain and white balance of said forward viewing camera, (ii) at least said driver-side sideward viewing camera and said passenger-side sideward viewing camera receive respective second signals from said electronic control unit to disable automatic control of exposure, gain and white balance of at least said driver-side sideward viewing camera and said passenger-side sideward viewing camera, and (iii) said electronic control unit controls exposure, gain and white balance of at least said driver-side sideward viewing camera and said passenger-side sideward viewing camera in accordance with the enabled automatic control of said forward viewing camera; wherein, during a reversing maneuver of the vehicle, said rearward viewing camera functions as the master camera and at least said driver-side sideward viewing camera and said passenger-side sideward viewing camera function as slave cameras, and wherein, during the reversing maneuver of the vehicle, (i) said rearward viewing camera receives the first signal from said electronic control unit to enable the automatic control of exposure, gain and white balance of said rearward viewing camera, (ii) at least said driver-side sideward viewing camera and said passenger-side sideward viewing camera receive respective second signals from said electronic control unit to disable automatic control of exposure, gain and white balance of at least said driver-side sideward viewing camera and said passenger-side sideward viewing camera, and (iii) said electronic control unit controls exposure, gain and white balance of at least said driver-side sideward viewing camera and said passenger-side sideward viewing camera in accordance with the enabled automatic control of said rearward viewing camera; an image processing system operable to process image data captured by said plurality of cameras; wherein, responsive to processing of captured image data, said vision system is operable to synthesize a composite image derived from image data captured by at least the master camera and the slave cameras; wherein the composite image comprises a bird's eye view image derived from image data captured by at least the master camera and the slave cameras; wherein exposure, gain and white balance parameters of the master camera are used at least by the master camera and the slave cameras; wherein exposure, gain and white balance parameters of the master camera are carried between the master camera and the electronic control unit; and wherein said electronic control unit sends exposure, gain and white balance parameters carried between the master camera and said electronic control unit to at least the slave cameras so that borders of adjacent image sections of the composite image, when displayed to a driver of the vehicle by a display device of the vehicle, appear uniform in at least one of (i) brightness at the borders of the image sections and (ii) color at the borders of the image sections.
 2. The vision system of claim 1, wherein, when said electronic control unit makes a viewing mode change, selection of which of said plurality of cameras comprises the master camera is made by said electronic control unit, and wherein configuration commands are sent to said plurality of cameras to re-configure them to suitable master and slave modes.
 3. The vision system of claim 1, wherein exposure, gain and white balance parameters of the master camera are sent by said electronic control unit to slave cameras so slave cameras operate with a same set of exposure, gain and white balance parameters as used by the master camera.
 4. The vision system of claim 1, wherein said electronic control unit sends exposure, gain and white balance parameters carried between the master camera and said electronic control unit to slave cameras so that the borders of the adjacent image sections of the composite image, when displayed to a driver of the vehicle by the display device of the vehicle, appear uniform in brightness at the borders of the image sections.
 5. The vision system of claim 1, wherein said electronic control unit sends exposure, gain and white balance parameters carried between the master camera and said electronic control unit to slave cameras so that the borders of the adjacent image sections of the composite image, when displayed to a driver of the vehicle by the display device of the vehicle, appear uniform in color at the borders of the image sections.
 6. The vision system of claim 1, wherein the composite image comprises a bird's eye view image derived from image data captured by said rearward viewing camera, said driver-side sideward viewing camera, said forward viewing camera and said passenger-side sideward viewing camera.
 7. The vision system of claim 1, wherein, during a forward driving maneuver of the vehicle, the automatic control of exposure, gain and white balance of said rearward viewing camera is disabled.
 8. The vision system of claim 1, wherein, during the reversing maneuver of the vehicle, the automatic control of exposure, gain and white balance of said forward viewing camera is disabled.
 9. The vision system of claim 1, wherein, when the driving maneuver of the vehicle comprises a forward driving maneuver, said vision system selects said forward viewing camera as the master camera and selects said rearward viewing camera, said driver-side sideward viewing camera and said passenger-side sideward viewing camera as slave cameras, and wherein said electronic control unit sends exposure, gain and white balance parameters carried between the master camera and said electronic control unit to said rearward viewing camera, said driver-side sideward viewing camera and said passenger-side sideward viewing camera.
 10. The vision system of claim 1, wherein, when the driving maneuver of the vehicle comprises a reversing maneuver, said vision system selects said rearward viewing camera as the master camera and selects said forward viewing camera, said driver-side sideward viewing camera and said passenger-side sideward viewing camera as slave cameras, and wherein said electronic control unit sends exposure, gain and white balance parameters carried between the master camera and said electronic control unit to said forward viewing camera, said driver-side sideward viewing camera and said passenger-side sideward viewing camera.
 11. A vision system for a vehicle, said vision system comprising: a plurality of cameras disposed at a vehicle and having respective fields of view exterior of the vehicle; wherein said plurality of cameras comprises a forward viewing camera having at least a forward field of view forward of the vehicle, a rearward viewing camera having at least a rearward field of view rearward of the vehicle, a driver-side sideward viewing camera having at least a sideward field of view at a driver side of the vehicle and a passenger-side sideward viewing camera having at least a sideward field of view at a passenger side of the vehicle; an electronic control unit; wherein each of said cameras is operable to automatically control its exposure, gain and white balance responsive to a first control signal received from said electronic control unit and is operable to disable automatic control of its exposure, gain and white balance responsive to a second control signal received from said electronic control unit; wherein one of said plurality of cameras functions as a master camera and other cameras of said plurality of cameras function as slave cameras; wherein, during a reversing maneuver of the vehicle, said rearward viewing camera functions as the master camera and at least said driver-side sideward viewing camera and said passenger-side sideward viewing camera function as slave cameras, and wherein, during the reversing maneuver of the vehicle, (i) said rearward viewing camera receives the first signal from said electronic control unit to enable the automatic control of exposure, gain and white balance of said rearward viewing camera, (ii) at least said driver-side sideward viewing camera and said passenger-side sideward viewing camera receive respective second signals from said electronic control unit to disable automatic control of exposure, gain and white balance of at least said driver-side sideward viewing camera and said passenger-side sideward viewing camera, and (iii) said electronic control unit controls exposure, gain and white balance of at least said driver-side sideward viewing camera and said passenger-side sideward viewing camera in accordance with the enabled automatic control of said rearward viewing camera; an image processing system operable to process image data captured by said plurality of cameras; wherein, responsive to processing of captured image data, said vision system is operable to synthesize a composite image derived from image data captured by at least the master camera and the slave cameras; wherein the composite image comprises a bird's eye view image derived from image data captured by at least the master camera and the slave cameras; wherein exposure, gain and white balance parameters of the master camera are used at least by the master camera and the slave cameras; wherein exposure, gain and white balance parameters of the master camera are carried between the master camera and the electronic control unit; and wherein said electronic control unit sends exposure, gain and white balance parameters carried between the master camera and said electronic control unit to at least the slave cameras so that borders of adjacent image sections of the composite image, when displayed to a driver of the vehicle by a display device of the vehicle, appear uniform.
 12. The vision system of claim 11, wherein, during the reversing maneuver of the vehicle, the automatic control of exposure, gain and white balance of said forward viewing camera is disabled.
 13. The vision system of claim 12, wherein said electronic control unit sends exposure, gain and white balance parameters carried between the master camera and said electronic control unit to slave cameras so that the borders of the adjacent image sections of the composite image, when displayed to the driver of the vehicle by the display device of the vehicle, appear uniform in brightness at the borders of the adjacent image sections.
 14. The vision system of claim 12, wherein said electronic control unit sends exposure, gain and white balance parameters carried between the master camera and said electronic control unit to slave cameras so that the borders of the adjacent image sections of the composite image, when displayed to the driver of the vehicle by the display device of the vehicle, appear uniform in color at the borders of the adjacent image sections.
 15. The vision system of claim 12, wherein exposure, gain and white balance parameters of the master camera are sent by said electronic control unit to slave cameras so slave cameras operate with a same set of exposure, gain and white balance parameters as used by the master camera.
 16. A vision system for a vehicle, said vision system comprising: a plurality of cameras disposed at a vehicle and having respective fields of view exterior of the vehicle; wherein said plurality of cameras comprises a forward viewing camera having at least a forward field of view forward of the vehicle, a rearward viewing camera having at least a rearward field of view rearward of the vehicle, a driver-side sideward viewing camera having at least a sideward field of view at a driver side of the vehicle and a passenger-side sideward viewing camera having at least a sideward field of view at a passenger side of the vehicle; an electronic control unit; wherein each of said cameras is operable to automatically control its exposure, gain and white balance responsive to a first control signal received from said electronic control unit and is operable to disable automatic control of its exposure, gain and white balance responsive to a second control signal received from said electronic control unit; wherein one of said plurality of cameras functions as a master camera and other cameras of said plurality of cameras function as slave cameras; wherein, during a forward driving maneuver of the vehicle, said forward viewing camera functions as the master camera and at least said driver-side sideward viewing camera and said passenger-side sideward viewing camera function as slave cameras, and wherein, during the forward driving maneuver of the vehicle, (i) said forward viewing camera receives the first signal from said electronic control unit to enable the automatic control of exposure, gain and white balance of said forward viewing camera, (ii) at least said driver-side sideward viewing camera and said passenger-side sideward viewing camera receive respective second signals from said electronic control unit to disable automatic control of exposure, gain and white balance of at least said driver-side sideward viewing camera and said passenger-side sideward viewing camera, and (iii) said electronic control unit controls exposure, gain and white balance of at least said driver-side sideward viewing camera and said passenger-side sideward viewing camera in accordance with the enabled automatic control of said forward viewing camera; an image processing system operable to process image data captured by said plurality of cameras; wherein, responsive to processing of captured image data, said vision system is operable to synthesize a composite image derived from image data captured by at least the master camera and the slave cameras; wherein the composite image comprises a bird's eye view image derived from image data captured by at least the master camera and the slave cameras; wherein exposure, gain and white balance parameters of the master camera are used at least by the master camera and the slave cameras; wherein exposure, gain and white balance parameters of the master camera are carried between the master camera and the electronic control unit; and wherein said electronic control unit sends exposure, gain and white balance parameters carried between the master camera and said electronic control unit to the slave cameras so that borders of adjacent image sections of the composite image, when displayed to a driver of the vehicle by a display device of the vehicle, appear uniform.
 17. The vision system of claim 16, wherein, during the forward driving maneuver of the vehicle, the automatic control of exposure, gain and white balance of said rearward viewing camera is disabled.
 18. The vision system of claim 17, wherein said electronic control unit sends exposure, gain and white balance parameters carried between the master camera and said electronic control unit to slave cameras so that borders of adjacent image sections of the composite image, when displayed to the driver of the vehicle by the display device of the vehicle, appear uniform in brightness at the borders of the adjacent image sections.
 19. The vision system of claim 17, wherein said electronic control unit sends exposure, gain and white balance parameters carried between the master camera and said electronic control unit to slave cameras so that borders of adjacent image sections of the composite image, when displayed to the driver of the vehicle by the display device of the vehicle, appear uniform in color at the borders of the adjacent image sections.
 20. The vision system of claim 17, wherein exposure, gain and white balance parameters of the master camera are sent by said electronic control unit to slave cameras so slave cameras operate with a same set of exposure, gain and white balance parameters as used by the master camera. 